Small Livery Yards

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Is there a call for small livery yards? I'm looking into renting a yard of 10 stables to run as a livery yard. But do people prefer a larger yard?
 
I wouldnt say ten stables is a small livery yard. Its not mahoosive but its fairly standard around here! Depends on the acres it comes with and the turnout. I would much prefer a smaller ten box yard with good turnout than a big yard anyday.
 
I think 10 is fine - I've looked at smaller.

What facilities they have is my only question as some of the smaller yards near me just have paddocks and no school.
 
I love the 'smaller' yard, however that said, the facilities have to be good enough (and safe enough) to tempt me.

What facilities come with the stables OP?
 
We are the only liveries in a 6 stable yard! We love a small yard and would never go back to a big one with all the bitchiness and politics.
 
Mine is a small yard. The most horses I have had here is eight. I have never had any problems filling stables. I have reduced it down to four horses now (just didn't replace people when they left over the past 3 years). Four is the perfect number for me to do and my three liveries (and their gorgeous horses) are so lovely.
 
My yard (as in the one where I keep my boy, I don't own it) has 12 liveries plus the YO's retired boy. It's the perfect size, I think. Big enough for there to be people to do things with when you want, small enough that you can get peace and quiet if you go at the right time. I'm usually last up in the evenings so I rarely have to share the school but I always have someone to hack with at weekends. The YO is also really good at picking the right liveries so we all get on and there are no problems with bitchiness etc and we all keep an eye on everybody else's horses. The horses are split into 2 herds which are very settled (they merge into one with no problems once the hay has been cut and they go onto the hay fields) They have plenty of grazing and they're all really happy. It's just a lovely chilled place to be for humans and horses.
 
I have a smallholding and enough room for one, only one, livery.

We moved here 25 yrs ago and then you'd struggle to find anyone looking for livery, strangely there seemed to be very little demand.

Certainly as recently as 10 years ago there wasn't anyone wanting it; at the time I was desperate for other horses on the place for company for my cob who I'd just bought, and finding anyone interested was a real struggle!

Now, with the advent of a New Town and lots of building locally, it is very different, and I knew that if my lovely livery left (which I hope she won't!!), I would very likely find someone quickly.

As a YO I frankly couldn't cope with any more than the one livery; we live on site and just couldnt' be @rsed with a lot of bitching and whinging. Just the one livery is fine for me!!
 
I have to agree with previous posters, depends on the facilities.

I prefer the smaller yards too, less nastyness and politics. I'd go out of my way to find one to be honest..
 
Unfortunately the size of the yard has never meant more or less bitchiness - and I still have yet to find the perfect yard where both me and my mare are happy (who knows what the future may bring!!!). However, ten sounds like a perfect size! Definitely enough people to hack out with and friends to be made, but doesn't sound particularly daunting either. Good luck!
 
I've been on a yard with 10 horses - 3 of the YO's and 7 liveries - and it was lovely. Plenty of turn out and a nice school with decent hacking in the area. If 10 works for you financially and practically, then I'd say go for it. As others have said, it depends on facilities and turn out really. I'm now on a slightly bigger yard (20 horses, of which 14 are liveries - moved as much nearer home and to save myself a 16 mile round trip) and our school has been out of action for 3 months due to drainage problems and a consequent re-build, and we all can't wait to get it back, even though we have decent hacking available. So it depends on what you want/need and your liveries require. At the end of the day, if people don't like it, they won't come ...
 
I have a small yard of 12 stables and now it is lovely with nice owners and horses. Only 3 owners and 6 horses and I am quite happy with that as I am now very wary of who comes on to the yard. Last year I had 12 horses and one woman that came turned out to be the nastiest piece of work ever! She told lies and stirred it up between 3 people who believed everything she said and they in turn turned out to be bampots. They were all new people and thankfully they left before I found out what was happening and threw them off. So its not only large yards that have bitchiness, it just takes one person.
I have a decent size indoor school and horses go out every day in winter and everything is peaceful again!
 
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I've been on large busy yards circa 60+ horses and then I kept my horses at two small private yards (smallholdings). Always on full livery. Anyway I definitely preferred the smaller yards. Always room to ride in the school (unrestricted use), the owners took a proper interest in my horse(s) and helped me / horse enormously when there were problems (like one of my horses arrived underweight - from a big busy place - and small yard owner weighed him and upped his feed accordingly - horse came good). On the smaller yards I noticed the quality of hay was always superb and plenty of it plus good turnout too! On large yards I would find inconsistent (sometimes incompetent) horse care, bad hay, not enough forage / feed provided, not enough bedding provided, beds not clean enough, too many 'accidents', people stealing my stuff, restricted use of the school, terrible turnout... To name but a few. So if I had to do it all again I'd definitely go for small!
 
The yard im looking into has 10 stables, 60 x 40 school, wash room, tack room, kitchen, 10 acres and its right by Epping forest,
 
The main benefit of a small yard for me is the amount of grazing we have (about 36 acres for 12 horses, although 18 of those are also hay fields. They graze the hay fields from the time the hay is cut until mid-November,) I'm not sure I'd want to be on a yard where there are 10 horses on 10 acres - although I understand land is at a premium where you are compared to where I am. You'd need to manage it very well to fill every stable and allow decent turnout.
 
We have 20 stales ut only use 12 as the others are storage fo livery or feedroom and 1 used for tack room. 10 isn't small imo or average around here
 
I'm another that prefers a smaller yard. Yes you can still get bitchiness and the odd annoying person however you don't get the chaotic hectic atmosphere you can get on big yards especially if they're mixed and while we still have to work with each other when we all want a lesson at the weekend, it's easily doable.

I've generally paid around the £400 mark with full cover Monday to Friday and a turnout or catch in at the weekend. No riding or grooming.

That roughly breaks down to £200 for stable rent, bed and forage, and £200 for services.
 
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